Bring On the Transparency Index | The Scientist

abernard102@gmail.com 2012-08-06

Summary:

“Scientists are universally familiar with the Impact Factor, even if they’re often frustrated with how it can be manipulated and misused. More recently, Ferric Fang and Arturo Casadevall have introduced the idea of the Retraction Index, a measure of how many papers journals retract for every 1,000 they publish. As science journalists who have spent the last 2 years closely monitoring retractions, we think this is a great idea. Last year, in a post on our blog Retraction Watch, we recommended that journals publicize their Retraction Indices just as they trumpet their Impact Factors. It’s unlikely many will take us up on the suggestion, but we’ll go once more into the breach anyway and suggest another metric of journal performance: the Transparency Index. Regardless of what metric scientists use to rank journals, one of the reasons they read the top-ranked journals is their sense that the information is reliable. We believe, and we’re not alone here, that journals become more trustworthy when they are open about not only their successes, but also their failures. We understand—in theory, at least—why some journals and editors might be reluctant to share the details of a retraction with their readers. Sometimes the problems involve shoddy reviews, failure to check a manuscript for evidence of plagiarism or duplicate publication, or other avoidable mistakes. But lack of transparency serves only to reinforce a sense of incompetence. Journals and editors willing to pull aside the curtain to show readers what went wrong with a particular article or group of articles send the messages that 1) they care about conveying truth to their audiences; 2) they are committed to producing a high-quality publication; and 3) potential fraudsters are not welcome in their pages. Our hope is to turn the above criteria into a numerical metric that can give authors and readers a sense of a journal’s transparency. How much can they trust what’s in its pages? Help us refine the Transparency Index at retractionwatch.wordpress.com/transparencyindex. The number, however, will just be an indicator. Scientists’ judgment will still be the most important factor. What sort of factors might go into the Transparency Index? In no particular order: [1] The journal’s review protocol, including whether or not its articles are peer-reviewed, the typical number of reviewers, time for review, manuscript acceptance rate, and details of the appeals process [2] Names and expertise of editorial board members, including whether or not they know they’re on the board (that last part shouldn’t be controversial, but we’ve spoken to a number of alleged editorial board members who are surprised to hear about such appointments. The publishers of many of those journals show up on University of Colorado Denver librarian Jeffrey Beall’s List of Predatory, Open-Access Publishers. Read his Critic at Large, ‘Predatory Publishing.’) [3] How authors are asked to disclose conflicts of interest, and the threshold for sharing those conflicts with readers [4] Contact information for the journal’s editor-in-chief, including an e-mail account that someone actually reads [5] Costs, not only for authors, but for readers. How much does it cost someone without a subscription (personal or institutional) to read a paper? [5] Whether the journal requires that underlying data are made available [6] Whether the journal uses plagiarism detection software and reviews figures for evidence of image manipulation [7] The journal’s mechanism for dealing with allegations of errors or misconduct, including whether it investigates such allegations from anonymous whistle-blowers [8] Whether corrections and retraction notices are as clear as possible, conforming to accepted publishing ethics guidelines such as those from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) or the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)...”

Link:

http://the-scientist.com/2012/08/01/bring-on-the-transparency-index/

Updated:

08/16/2012, 06:08

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » abernard102@gmail.com

Tags:

oa.new oa.data oa.policies oa.comment oa.peer_review oa.crowd oa.impact oa.costs oa.quality oa.jif oa.bealls_list oa.cope oa.credibility oa.plagiarism oa.retraction_watch oa.icmje oa.metrics

Authors:

abernard

Date tagged:

08/06/2012, 16:34

Date published:

08/06/2012, 17:12